Towards Food Security and Community Empowerment – EAST

Moderator: Kalyanii KL Chew

Panelists:  
David Hardwick, New South Wales, Australia
Yie-Ru Chiu – Hualian, Taiwan
Dada Dharmavedananda & Johan Pellsater, Oroquieta, Philippines

The industrial farming method of the last few decades, characterized by the rampant use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, has led to widespread soil, water and air pollution, ecological damage, low-nutrient produce and economic hardship to farmers across the world. So many of the crises facing the world today have their roots in how we treat our land, grow our food and what we eat. The solution lies in the return to regenerative agriculture, decentralized production and local community empowerment. Through consumer and producer cooperatives, people take control of the basic everyday decisions of life, like how we spend, what we buy, and how we produce the food we eat.

David Hardwick, Agroecologist
Rebooting the world’s farming and food systems
Moving towards an agriculture that is good for the planet, good for communities and good for you.
The great challenge of 20th century agriculture was to feed the billions of people as the earth’s human population exploded. The industrial model that underpins capitalist farming and food systems helped achieve this. But it has come at a cost; to the planet, to rural communities and to the health of individuals. The great challenge of 21st century agriculture is to sustain nearly 10 billion people whilst also looking after the plant and the other life we share the plant with, as well as producing food that equitably builds wealth for everyone and is truly nutritious to eat. This requires a complete redesign of the earth’s farming and food systems using an approach based on Neohumanist principles and applying modern ecological strategies including those from the ideas of PROUT.  In this session agroecologist and food system specialist David Hardwick will cover the key aspects of farming and food systems that need to undergo transformation this century using examples from the work he has been involved in over the last 20 years. This includes regenerative and organic farming, biofertilisers, regional and fair food system projects, cooperatives and holistic planning approaches to achieving balance in the world’s food systems.

Yie-Ru Chiu, Permaculture Design Teacher and Cooperative 
Empowering communities through coordinated cooperation between consumer and producer cooperatives in the development of a decentralized, regenerative food system
Many people are dissatisfied with the worsening wealth disparity that results in large-scale socio-economic suffering, but do not know how to reverse this tendency. They do not realize that they themselves are contributing to this tragedy through their consumption behavior. The way to free themselves from this vicious cycle is to divert their purchasing power to a more decentralized and more democratic economic system, which supports a more sustainable, regenerative food system.

In Taiwan, a few cooperative activists are raising the socio-economic awareness of the people through the formation of a consumer cooperative in a university campus. Through the collective purchasing power of this cooperative, they are able to support the development of a local, indigenous producer cooperative. Working with the Tzu-Chi Foundation, they have established a Participatory Guarantee System in which both organic farmers and consumers engage in cooperative dialog, thus gaining mutual understanding for a win-win future.

Dada Dharmavedananda and Johan Pellsater
OroqCoco – Local Production for Local Consumption
OroqCoco is a PROUTistic cooperative which empowers farmers to create their own premium products from their local coconuts. Through decentralized production and decision making the farmers earn much more from their produce than under the capitalistic system.  OroqCoco is supported by the local government and is endorsed and assisted by the former mayor, a provincial board member and the provincial governor. We hope to leverage the success of OroqCoco to turn Oroquieta City into the first PROUT city in the world.